17 Sep 2015

Author:

A.S. Haley

News from the Anglican Communion has been non-existent,
largely because it is no longer functioning as a Communion (remember what the
Primates warned in October, 2003?), and because developments in the Church of
England (as it slowly goes to pieces in the same way that ECUSA did) have left
little that can still be called Anglican.

So it comes as a welcome surprise that the Archbishop of
Canterbury has called for a gathering of the Anglican Primates in London next
January to discuss the future of the Communion. The agenda will not be dictated
beforehand, but will consist of topics suggested by individuals and agreed upon
by consensus.

In a nod that acknowledges the collective will of the
GAFCON primates, the Archbishop of Canterbury has already extended an
invitation to ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach to attend for part of the gathering.
According to the Secretary of the Anglican Communion, the Most Reverend Josiah
Idowu-Fearon, "nearly all the Primates have indicated support for this
meeting" -- since Archbishop Welby's invitation shows that he listened to
what the GAFCON primates had to say in his individual conversations with them.

Another factor that no doubt is facilitating a fresh
attempt to strive for consensus is that the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal
Church (USA) attending will be the newly elected Most Rev. Michael Curry,
rather than his predecessor, who managed repeatedly to give offense to many of
the Global South's primates at their previous meetings, and who was indifferent
to the consequences of her conduct for the communality of the Communion. Bishop
Curry will take office November 1, and will come to the meeting with a clean
slate (insofar as any representative of ECUSA is able to do so). At least there
are signs that he will meet his colleagues from an initial position that
reflects more of a personal, evangelically-based humility than of an
intellectually-based self-assurance or arrogance. If so, that will go a long
way toward helping the Primates' conversations recover lost ground, and perhaps
even move forward.

Nevertheless, neither ECUSA nor the Anglican Church of
Canada have shown the least sign of moderating their separatist stances, and so
there can be no return to the pre-2003 Communion. At the same time, their
self-inflicted decline in members will lessen their ability to throw their
weight around: can you imagine Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori agreeing to
attend a meeting at which Archbishop Robert Duncan would also be present? The
challenge to Archbishop Welby and the gathered Primates will be to find a path
that will allow the greatest possible number of shattered relationships to
heal, and so in time (perhaps) to move the Communion to a new consensus.

But for that to happen, the Anglican Communion Office
(through both the Archbishop of Canterbury and its Secretariat) will have to
distance itself further from financial and ideological dependency on ECUSA and
its wealthy constituents, such as Trinity Wall Street. For too long now, from
GAFCON's point of view, the revisionists have been calling the shots, but now
there are signs that they at last are weakening. That is why Archbishop
Idowu-Fearon will play a key role, along with Archbishop Welby, in resolving
how best to start realigning the Communion at the upcoming Primates' Meeting,
if that process is to begin at all.

If they try to help ECUSA and ACoC retain their erstwhile
roles of influence, they will hasten the eventual disintegration of the
Anglican Communion. Likewise, if they listen only to the voices of modernity,
according to which each church's or denomination's view of Scripture needs to
get in step with the culture, then they will seal that disintegration, by
recognizing it as a fact that has already occurred. But if they actually listen
to the voices that are seeking to hold the Communion in line with its
traditional understanding of Scripture -- an understanding that stems from the
very beginnings of the Anglican Church -- they may yet hope to call a halt to
the disintegration, and to lay the first firm paving-stones for a Communion
that will, one day and once again, derive its strength from its collective
faith in the good news of Christ crucified.

The decision is in God's hands. Pray for the Primates,
and (if you still treasure what once was there) for the lost Anglican
Communion.

- See more at: http://www.anglicanink.com/article/haley-primates-gathering-finally-anglican-post-0#sthash.ax0zqqxj.dpuf